“There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just,” (Catechism of the Catholic Church).
Chastity is not accepted by society today. For instance, once, I was asked, “If you never had sex before marriage, how do you know it was worth the wait?” Honestly, fair enough. I accept that this concept may be confusing.
Let me ask this: “If you’ve never drowned to death, how do you know it’s awful?” Can you imagine not being able to breathe? Think about your lungs collapsing. Imagine your head swelling up and vision going black. Think about the idea of slowly, slowly not being able to get air until you finally can’t stay awake. It sounds pretty bad!
I’ve never drowned, but I know I don’t want to. Also, I never had sex before marriage, but I knew I didn’t want to. Sometimes you know something is worth waiting for because you know the alternative will never be worth the loss.
What do you lose by premarital sex?
We lose our freedom when we have sex outside of marriage. The world has such a twisted idea of “freedom” and “rights.” We think we have to do what we want to be free. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains freedom cannot be true except when pursuing goodness. Freedom is the ability to choose what is good. This means we cannot truly be free unless we are fully able to choose what is good for us.
Sin prevents us from being able to choose freely. Addicts lose their ability to choose not to drink alcohol or ingest drugs. Pornography can become a knee-jerk reaction to the day ending. Refusing to control our emotions causes huge struggles to not lash out or scream. The more we indulge in a particular sin, the more difficult it becomes to freely turn away.
Premarital sex destroys our ability to freely choose good for our bodies and souls. It creates wounds that are extremely difficult to heal from. Sex before marriage causes a destruction of our self-image. It can lead to loss of control of our thoughts and actions. Premarital sex can cause issues that relationships are not equipped to handle outside of marriage. We lose our freedom to think clearly, to make good decisions, and to make better ones in the future.
The freedom of chastity.
Chastity allows us to choose what is good. It allows us to execute right judgment in our relationships. Chasity allows us to be excited and feel safe when we take a pregnancy test. It guarantees we will wake up with the person we fell asleep with. Chasity means our sex is uniting, not dividing us from God.
God gave mankind an incredible gift when He gave us sex. It’s the ability to be fully united to each other and to Him, to serve in the design of procreation. Squandering that gift on passion kills God’s life in our souls. It drowns us. No one needs to go through it to know it’s worth waiting for. Freedom is worth the wait.
